Drones and humanoids: China vs USA showdown
Elon referenced a post he reposted on X that said something to the effect of “any country that cannot manufacture its own drones is doomed to be the vassal state of any country that can.” And, per Musk, “America cannot currently manufacture its own drones.”
The comment was made in response to an analyst question about whether the U.S. or China was further ahead on the development of physical AI, specifically humanoids and drones. Musk noted that China makes 70% of all drones and anyone else has a dependency on China’s supply chain.
Tesla doesn’t make drones, but it does make humanoids. And despite the fact that Chinese humanoid robots are already attempting to run half marathons (albeit not too successfully), have been deployed publicly and industrially at scale, and have strong government support, Musk said that there’s no company in any country that can match Tesla.
“Now, I’m a little concerned that on the leaderboard, ranks two through 10 will be Chinese companies, but I’m confident that rank one will be Tesla,” he said.
